Nasrallah's mother's funeral to take place today

BEIRUT — Nahdiya Safieddine, mother of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, has died, the party and the al-Manar television channel announced on Saturday evening.

"Umm Hassan, the mother of Hezbollah's secretary-general, has died," reads a brief Hezbollah statement, which adds that "the place and date" of the funeral will be announced at a later time. According to several Lebanese media outlets, Safieddine died of an illness.

A second statement, issued in the evening on behalf of the "Hezbollah Command," said she had passed away "after a long battle with illness," saluting the memory of a "faithful mother who gave birth to a faithful and generous family."

Hezbollah also announced that the funeral would take place on Sunday, May 16 at 2 p.m., in Ghobeiri, in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Nasrallah has rarely appeared in public since the 2006 war between his party and Israel.